Like many of the scams I write about, today’s Scam of the Day comes from my own email.  Today I received an email, a copy of which is reproduced below.  In the email I am promised  a gift of more than a million pounds being generously promised to me by a couple whom I have never heard of and never met.  Interestingly the email is not even addressed to me by name, but rather carries no salutation whatsoever.  Like all lottery scams, if you contact the person promising you the money, you will soon learn that there are many fees, costs or taxes that must be paid first in order to claim your prize.  Legitimate lotteries do not charge anything.  With lottery scams, you pay the requested amounts, but never receive anything in return.  Remember, it is hard enough to win a legitimate lottery that you have entered.  It is impossible to win a lottery that you haven’t even entered.

“My wife and I won the Euro Millions Lottery & will be donating £1.5 Million Pounds to you in our ongoing lucky draws donations. Please get back to us with your Name, Age, Tel, Country and i will send you more details how your funds will be sent to you.

Please read the article – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19254228

Gillian & Adrian Bayford”

TIPS

If you Google the names Gillian and Adrian Bayford, you will indeed find that they did win 148 million pounds in the EuroMillions lottery in August of 2012.  The email that is being presently circulated is not from the Bayfords and even if it were, one would wonder why they decided almost a year later to give you a chunk of their winnings.  Whenever you receive a notice that you have won a lottery that you have never entered, you should just delete and ignore it.  Advance fee lottery scams prey upon our greed and desire for an easy dollar, but if you end up paying anything to the people who contact you as a part of one of these phony lotteries, the only easy money is the money that the scam artist receives from you.